A few weeks ago I found a packet of silica gel in a pair of shoes. It said on the pack “Silica Gel – THROW AWAY”

That’s not much good for a family on a mission to put nothing into landfill this year!

Fortunately, you all came to my rescue with your brilliant suggestions for how to turn our rubbish into a resource. Rather than keep all the information to ourselves, we decided to compile a list so everyone can benefit from the wisdom of your knowledge.

So here it is, 8 ways to reuse silica gel as suggested by you!

Protect seeds

Compost Woman uses packs of silica gel to keep her seeds in tip top condition, ready for planting out.

Prevent condensation

Wardrobes

Sandy puts silica gel in the bottom of her wardrobe, in the lid of an old shoe box.

Reuse

Magdalena has a similar idea; she use it in closets or in the bottom of stored suitcases. But she suggests we try to remember to leave it at the store next time so it can be reused – great point, Magdalena!

I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

Comments (39)

that’s the way to gather all tips on one subject, perhaps the collaborative process would work for many different items, like “Wednesday’ s waste-free tips” <almost sounds exciting!
i love it here among kindred spirits. thank Greens et al.

The other side of the coin is that there are places that need to be kept humid. Kleeneze and similar outfits used to sell these narrow tubs that could be filled with water and hung on radiators, but I wonder if used teabags could be employed instead, and put in the food waste bin when they were sufficiently dessicated, or would they leave tannin stains on the walls? Tell me I’m being crazy…

@Joe K: Oh gosh; I remember those pottery radiator things; I used to think they were very cool when I was young and always said I’d have them in my own house. It turns out I moved into a home without any central heating; so that idea went out the window.
As for teabags; yeah you’re definitely crazy …

I found this Website on my search for ideas to lower the (negative) impact I have on the ecosystem. This site is a great inspiration. However, when I read about the suggestions to reuse the silica gel packs found in new shoes, bags etc. I cringed. While silica gel is perfectly harmless (more or less), these packs are often loaded with DMF (Dimethylfumarat), a fungicide to prevent moulding in the goods while they travel round the world. You don’t want to make contact with that stuff! Since most of our goods are nowadays produced in China, and as recent scandals have shown, poisonous additive are not uncommon there, I suggest extreme caution.

The wise way to tread these silica gel packs is to not touch them and dispose of them safely. (Google DMF and its health effects). Pure silica gel can be purchased in a pharmacy or drug store if one wants to keep places dry.

@Stefan: Hi Stefan, welcome to the site 🙂 Thank you for raising your concerns and giving information about silica gel to our readers. It ‘s good to share knowledge and empower others to look into these things further so that we can all stay safe.

Silica gel packs can be regenerated, drive the water off by heating in an oven at 120°C for an hour or so or they can heated at a low setting in a microwave oven for 5 to 10 minutes, take care they can get very hot.

@Mrs Green: We use silica granules in the lab and they can be revived indefinitely – but if it’s the self indicating stuff which contains a blue cobalt chloride dye which turns red when wet, that eventually stops indicating if it’s wet or dry and does tend to result in us throwing it out and replacing for convenience.

One way to avoid wasting the granules when the dye is depleted is to just add a few fresh ones to the main batch. These can continue to indicate whether the Silica gel batch has become depleted and/or regenerated.

Remember those small plastic cases for photographic films? Or any small plastic container…
I have a few of them, drilled many holes with a small drill and filled each one with silica gel from a big pack that came in an eletronic equipment… The remainder I keep in a glass jar.
These small plastic containers, now filled with s-gel make a great humidity absorber for various situations… Medicine cabinet, camera box, even to keep watercolor pencils and art stuff dry.

Whenever the S-gel gets “bad” in absorbing humidity, I throw it in a metal dish and “recycle” it for about an hour in the oven (not too hot!).

I just came across this post on the reuse of silica gel and I am glad to see everyone being so creative with this item.

The one thing I would like to add, is that silica gel adsorbs moisture very quickly and a small silica gel packet may only last an hour or less if placed in an uncontrolled atmosphere. To make sure you do get the moisture protection you are looking for, it is important to place the belongings you are looking to protect in an airtight container and then put a fresh or re-activated silica gel packet into the container with your items and seal it. This will insure your belongings remain free of moisture.

FYI: Desiccant (silica gel) found in shoe boxes, hand bags or the pocket of your new leather coat have not been active since the left the leather manufacturer. When you find these packets, understand these will be useless to you until they have been reactivated.

My hubby tablets come in bottles with silica gel in the plastic caps has anyone any idea how i can dry this so I can use the bottles for seeds. I can’t put them in the oven as the cap will melt, and I can’t get the silica gel out without distroying the cap.

When our salt is damp, we leave it sitting on top of the boiler and it soon dries out. Also, when we wash the cheese grater, we put it on top of the boiler to dry so that it does not rust. Would silica gel dry out on the boiler, or does it have to be baked at a higher temperature?